Jump to content
  TPR Home | Parks | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram 

Hard Rock / Freestyle Music Park Discussion Thread


Recommended Posts

"Holy (enter your favorite expression here)!!! Somebody bought Hard Rock Park and they are going to try and open the park up this Memorial Weekend?"

 

That was my expression when I logged onto Screamscape.com and saw on its opening line that a buyer for Hard Rock Park has been found. I am tickled to death (Or as they say in Zimbabwe in a translation: "I itched and itched and then I died") by this exciting news.

 

I don't have any plans to revisit this park this year (like I did last year), but I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best that the new owners can keep this park running better and much longer than the previous owners.

 

"Let's keep this park Rocking in the Free World!!!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

**note to self...never...NEVER use red or black font colors on TPR...it really sucks reading it**

 

But to contribute, I wonder how much it would cost to keep the dark ride in tack but just change the name? Like, keep the song but change the name. If it's anything like youtube they will cease operations until you find a new song or pick a song from their collection!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ I agree. They should plan a new theme & maybe add a new coaster so the public would get interested in it again.

They could probably advertise Maximum RPM! as a new coaster for 2009 and no one would notice it was intended to be (consistently) open last year.

 

"It's just been under construction for 20 months..."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This article mentions a second buyer might be interested.

 

http://www.wistv.com/global/story.asp?s=9823613&ClientType=Printable

 

I wonder why SFI or CF don't put in a bid too. It seems like it wood be a cheap way to get rides for their other parks.

 

SFI doesn't have $25 million to spend. CF already has an Old Indiana, no need for another one. If they want a few cheap rides, all they need to do is look at the remains of Expoland, Camelot, Cypress Gardens, etc etc etc. They can wait till the end of '09 and there will probably be even more out there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^While Pay-Per-Ride would be nice to draw people into the park, I don't think there are enough rides there that you'd want to ride over and over again (especially if you have to deal with Led Zep's preshow every time!) I would think it would be more beneficial to either have a cheap admission rate of like $5-10, plus parking, and then either pay per ride or $25 for a wristband, or just flat out make it $34.99 to get into the park for everyone to get in and enjoy all the rides and shows they want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think realistically an addition is not going to happen, I don't even think its feasible, not in this market. I mean at the first auction companies couldn't buy the park because they couldnt get financing, so now that one could pull off financing to buy a park that is liquidating assets, what makes you think they could even find the money? HRP went belly up in a matter of months, a realistic bank would not finance an addition to a park that can't even bring in money anyways. At least that is what I think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^While Pay-Per-Ride would be nice to draw people into the park, I don't think there are enough rides there that you'd want to ride over and over again (especially if you have to deal with Led Zep's preshow every time!) I would think it would be more beneficial to either have a cheap admission rate of like $5-10, plus parking, and then either pay per ride or $25 for a wristband, or just flat out make it $34.99 to get into the park for everyone to get in and enjoy all the rides and shows they want.

I feel like with all the bars that the place has I could see people wanting to swing by there late night just like Broadway on the Beach. To me it seems like a great idea, combining two great attractions from the area - late night restaurant bar scene of Broadway, and the amusement park fun of Family Kingdom. I think it could do reasonably ok.

 

I really hope the name doesn't end up being a deal breaker as well. Obviously the Hard Rock name isn't a huge deal here, or they wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sold

 

 

Wilmington, Del. | A judge has approved the sale of Hard Rock Park to FPI MB Entertainment for $25 million. The sale is scheduled to close no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, but could happen as early as Wednesday.

 

Delaware bankruptcy court Judge Kevin Carey called the price adequate and the process rigorous. "Anyone who wanted the opportunity to bid had it," he said. FPI wants to keep the Hard Rock brand but has agreed to destroy any Hard Rock-branded merchandise before the park opens if there is no agreement on extending the license agreement, lawyers for the companies said in court.

 

The judge overruled the objection of Coastal Entertainment, a company out of Finland that said it wanted to bid $25.5 million. Officials with legal and accounting firms involved in the case it would take at least 10 to 14 days for the company's funding to come through to the United States, and they could not confirm a claim by the company that it had wired in a down payment of $2.5 million.

New owners of Hard Rock Park Hard Rock Park trustee

David Wesson (second from right) leaves Bankruptcy Court with lawyer Bennet Young (far right) and the other principles of FPI MB Entertainment after a judge approved sale of the park to FPI.

CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS

 

*

* New owners of Hard Rock Park

* Hard Rock Park trustee

 

* Gallery Available Hard Rock Park Timeline

* Third group joins coaster ride to ownership at Hard Rock Park

* Who does Hard Rock Park owe money to?

* External Link Full coverage of Hard Rock Park

 

Click here to find out more!

 

Carey said Coastal Entertainment came "to the court too little and too late." A lawyer for Coastal Entertainment, Karen Bifferato, said she believed her client's bid, given time, would have been the better offer.

 

FPI has said it wants to reopen the park by Memorial Day. It would take about three months to get it ready, including adding rides, arranging merchandising and designing new attractions and shows, the company has said in court documents.

 

"We're absolutely thrilled with the bankruptcy court's decision today, and we look forward to opening the park in the May timeframe," said David Wasson, a principal with FPI MB Entertainment. He would not say what was in store for season ticket holders and referred all other questions to Brandon Advertising, a Myrtle Beach company working with FPI.

 

Hard Rock International has already removed some memorabilia from the park - but not all the memorabilia it expected to find, said Richard Robinson, a lawyer for the cafe company. Robinson said he didn't know whether it was because the company's list of memorabilia was wrong or whether some of it had been stolen.

 

FPI had wrestled Coastal Entertainment in court over their competing bids. FPI said Coastal's offer was only better on the surface - and that it would not cover $2 million in taxes, administrative expenses and other contracts that were included in FPI's bid.

 

Most of the money - more than $20 million - will go toward covering several debts to Deutsche Bank, with some money left over for lawyers and administrators. Between $300,000 and $400,000 will be left to be divided among bondholders, who are owed about $255 million, said John Carroll, the trustee's attorney.

 

Anyone else who had been interested in buying the park is out of luck, trustee Fred Giuliano said. A local water park owner and former Horry County Councilman, Mark Lazarus, had said he was interested in purchasing the 55-acre amusement that sits on 140 acres of land.

 

During the hearing, the judge took Coastal Entertainment to task for the timing of its bid.

 

"I want to find out, where have you been?" Carey asked Bifferato. "This has been a sale case since last fall, maybe earlier than that. ... Are you telling me your clients just found out this park was for sale?"

 

He also asked what the people behind Coastal Entertainment do for a living, but Bifferato said she was not sure what she was at liberty to disclose.

 

Hard Rock Park, which licensed the brand name from the cafe and casino company, opened in April and closed and filed for bankruptcy in September. It said it employed 2,000 people at its peak.

 

Employees were sent W-2 forms in the mail two weeks ago, Giuliano said.

 

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/679/story/787109.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a question regarding the bondholder debts that are owed. The article mentioned that the bondholders were ower $255 million, but what does that mean to FPI? Will FPI have to cover the debt or will they not have to because the park went into chapter 7?

 

I'm pretty sure it means the bondholders are screwed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a question regarding the bondholder debts that are owed. The article mentioned that the bondholders were ower $255 million, but what does that mean to FPI? Will FPI have to cover the debt or will they not have to because the park went into chapter 7?

 

Initially, the company went Chapter 11, which allows protection for the company from the folks it owes money as it "restructures"; business-speak for firing people and finding new investors. Big surprise, they didn't find anyone to help finance their restructuring and change of business plan, so HRP went Chapter 7. That means the assets of the company are liquidated to pay the creditors. Creditors hate Chapter 7 because they generally get no return on their investment, and if you need to see an example of that, look at what happened to real estate in this country and how it absolutely laid waste to the financial sector, so they won't pursue it except as a final option.

 

What people made the mistake of assuming is that when the park didn't initially sell, that meant it *would be* broken up in Chapter 7/liquidation. Instead, you ended up with an array of folks coming in eying the place and its brand new insanely low price. The $255 million? Written off by the creditors, and the vast losses in the US are why you're seeing construction come to a dead halt in places like the UAE where the money was coming from to build the HRPs (and planned communities, and big box stores) stateside.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

^ - In the UK, when a company goes bust and sells up under either chapter 7 or 11, the company in question is sold for a nominal fee. The fee is always MUCH CHEAPER than the potential value of the company, this is to allow the creditors to be paid off by the new owners.

 

One recent example in the UK. American homeware store and UK high street giant Woolworths went into administration (chapter 11) just before christmas 2008. The administrators (I think in this case DeLoitte) put Woolworths up for sale for a nominal fee of £1.00 (approximately $1.50 at the time). The terms of the sale were that anybody who took over Woolworths had to pay back approximately 70-80% of Woolworths debts (£350million approx. or $525million approx.). Unfortunately, an acceptable offer was not found and Woolworths was liquidated. All remaining stock was sold at around 10-25% of the marked priced and anything that could be sold - was! Any money made was paid to the creditors and and residual amount paid off.

 

With the new owners paying $25million for the HRP company, I think not all the debt has been written off, but the new owners will have agreed a payment plan of probably around $150million including the $25million

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Terms of Use https://themeparkreview.com/forum/topic/116-terms-of-service-please-read/